


Lovers in the night

by SecondStarOnTheLeft



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-28
Updated: 2016-10-28
Packaged: 2018-08-27 14:12:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8404693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecondStarOnTheLeft/pseuds/SecondStarOnTheLeft
Summary: Ginny takes a Bludger to the knee during a match against Puddlemere, and in the process of limping home, she stumbles over an old friend.
Luna's head is under a wheelie bin, instead of in the clouds.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Catch Me If You Can by Walking On Cars, the lyrics don’t fully fit but the tone of the song works quite well, I think? [[youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aypOE3ZRxxM)]
> 
> For [Lili](http://gayginny.tumblr.com)

She took a Bludger to the knee during the last ten minutes of the game, but she still caught the Snitch. She’s not sure how, since she was screaming in pain the whole time, but she did it, it worked, and that’s all that matters. 

They’re in line for their fourth cup on the trot, now, and even Ron has grudgingly allowed himself to be photographed in a Harpies jersey. It’s been good - she’ll get home in the morning to find Harry’s Hedwig preening on her windowsill, and she’ll have a smartly groomed Ministry issue owl from Hermione, and poor old Errol from Mum, even though Mum and Dad come to every single one of her matches. She’s Ginny Weasley, Quidditch Sensation, and she’s more thankful to Skelo-Gro than the whole of Hogwarts combined at this stage, and her life is good.

Bumping into Luna - literally bumping into her, because bless her, of course Luna is crouched down looking for something under a Muggle wheelie bin. Of course she is.

“Long time no see, Luna,” Ginny says, and Luna springs up and smiles as serenely as if she’d been expecting Ginny this whole time.

“I’ve been terribly busy, I’m afraid,” she says breezily, and Ginny almost laughs - a few of her friends have let her know just how neglected they feel, with how much time she spends in the air, but of  _ course  _ that doesn’t occur to Luna. Luna’s habit of coming at things sideways has always been one of Ginny’s favourite things about her. “The Quibbler waits for no witch.”

Some people laughed when they heard Luna was writing for her dad, but honestly, it’s next to impossible to imagine Luna  _ not _ writing for the Quibbler, even if she is a respected magizoologist in her own right these days. 

“Crumple-Horned Snorkack still proving elusive?” Ginny asks, because if Luna  _ has  _ found a Snorkack, Ron owes her two Galleons. 

Ginny never, ever forgets a bet. 

“Not this time,” Luna says, scooping up her bag, which makes an impressive if slightly alarming rattle-squeak- _ blorp _ when she swings it over her shoulder. “Although we will be covering a recent sighting in this month’s edition - a shudderer up in the Outer Hebrides got some  _ lovely  _ photos, and Dad’s done a very nice interview with her. It took three goes to get it right!”

Were Xenophilius Lovegood any other man, Ginny would suspect that Luna was pretending her father wasn’t going out with the shudderer in the Outer Hebrides, but since Ginny  _ knows _ Xenophilius Lovegood, she knows that it probably did take three tries to get an interview about a possibly imaginary animal right. 

“Fancy grabbing a bite to eat?” Ginny says, rallying as best she can from that. “I can take you Side-Along to this lovely place in Newcastle, where they do a fantastic fish and chips.”

It’s a Muggle place, one Hermione had recommended years ago during one of her odd little rages about not  _ needing _ the wizarding world,  _ thank you very much,  _ and Ginny’s been a religious fan ever since. She keeps twenty Muggle pounds in her purse just in case she ever feels the need for crispy battered cod and huge, fluffy chips.

She brought Harry there once, and he’d laughed and laughed, and admitted that he thought he might not be straight. Ginny had thumped him in the shoulder, proud as punch of him, and told him that she  _ knew _ she wasn’t straight, the word was  _ bisexual,  _ and well done him for being brave enough to admit it, too. They’d worked hard to remain friends after their strange, fizzled out break up, and it had been worth it.

Harry, of all people, will be delighted to know she’s seen Luna.

“I could bring  _ you _ Side-Along,” Luna says, “to a lovely place I found when I was in Belize with Rolf-”

Ginny doesn’t know who Rolf is, and is only slightly sure where Belize is.

“- but you’d probably rather that nice restaurant in Cornwall where he tried to propose,” Luna says thoughtfully. “Yes, let’s go there!”

She has Ginny’s wrist in her hand before Ginny can blink, and then the air smells salty and bright blue, and there are seagulls crying overhead but they aren’t  _ Holyhead _ seagulls, she knows that on some deep, instinctive level.

Her knee buckles under her at the unexpected start-and-stop, but Luna doesn’t seem to mind. She just pulls one of Ginny’s arms over her shoulder and guides her out into a beautiful, winding street, and then in through a red door under a striped canopy.

“Ah, Sofia,” Luna says, “can you have a look at my friend’s knee? Quidditch, I think.”

The stunningly lovely woman behind the counter roles her eyes, but fondly, and says something in what Ginny thinks is Italian that Ginny assumes means  _ Englishwomen,  _ and pushes Ginny into a chair. 

Luna disappears into the kitchen, calling out ahead of herself in what sounds like fluent Italian, of course. 

“She’s one in a million,” the beautiful woman says, and Ginny can only nod, and then sigh in relief as a flash of soft red-gold light and a spell Ginny doesn’t quite catch takes the swelling out of her knee. “You should be in a hospital, no?”

“Probably,” Ginny agrees, “but Luna sort of made me forget.”

“Ah,” the woman, Sofia, says. “Yes. She is good at that, I think.”

Luna reemerges and settles opposite Ginny, her bag rattle-squeak- _ blorp _ ing again, and beams. 

“Dinner in ten,” she announces. “Sofia and Giacomo are the best in England, I think. You’ll love it here.”

“It’s true,” Sofia agrees, taking her place once more behind the counter and reminding Ginny, for a moment, of Madam Rosmeretta in the Three Broomsticks. “We are the best. You will love it here.”

 

* * *

Dinner is magnificent, followed by more ice-cream than Ginny can eat, and she leans sleepily against Luna as they muddled back to the same hidden alley into which they Apparated. 

“You said a man  _ proposed  _ to you?” she asks, suddenly remembering, and Luna laughs in that gentle, sing-song way of hers. 

“Rolf and I are writing a book together,” Luna confides. “He’s a Scamander, so it’s expected of him, but he can’t write to save his life, whereas I can, and have dozens of friends in the community. He only proposed because his father has been badgering to find a nice girl, and I’m the only girl that doesn’t scare him.”

She considers this for a thoughtful moment, and shrugs.

“I’m one of very few  _ people _ that doesn’t scare Rolf,” she amends, and shrugs again. “I wouldn’t know what to do with a husband even if I wanted one, so I said no. Our book is due to come out at Christmas.”

Ginny looks at Luna, who lives on another world and is still kinder to everyone on this one than anyone who lives here, and thinks,  _ Oh, of course. _

“I’m taking you out for dinner next weekend,” she decides. “To that fancy place all the Ministry nobs go. Gwenog knows the man who owns it, she’ll get me a table. It’ll be  _ brilliant. _ ”

“I’d like flowers,” Luna says, easy as a dream, “when you come to pick me up. Pink ones.”

“I wouldn’t dream of picking you up without flowers,” Ginny says, surprisingly insulted by how thoughtless Luna apparently thinks she is. “I have done this before, Luna.”

“I haven’t,” Luna says, wrapping her arm tight around Ginny’s waist to Apparate them home. “So you’d best-”

Luna’s mouth is soft, her lips thin and chapped and still tasting very slightly of pistachio ice-cream. It’s not a wonderful kiss, not yet, because Luna hasn’t had practice - but Ginny’ll help fix that.

The fireworks that whizz-bang to the tips of her fingers assure her that there  _ will be  _ wonderful kisses. They just need to work up to those.

Luna’s pink in the face when Ginny pulls back enough to see, and they giggle as if they’re fifteen again, and almost flirting but never quite getting there. 

“I’ve wondered if your mouth would feel nice for years,” Luna says in that usual, sideways way of hers, which is really very practical, once you get used to it. “I’m glad that it does.”

“You can have another go, just to be sure,” Ginny tells her, grinning now. “I don’t mind, I promise.”

It takes them half an hour before they Apparate, and Ginny’s knee is screaming from being bent just a little, to let her kiss Luna, but she doesn’t mind at all, not one bit. 

They agree that Ginny will pick Luna up at eight next Saturday night, and that Luna will wear whatever colour she wants and Ginny will wear black, so they don’t clash, and that Ginny will bring a bouquet of pink carnations, because Luna thinks they’re underappreciated, and kiss twice more - it feels as if they’re making up for lost time, somehow.

Hedwig is waiting for her when she gets home that night, and Ginny begins her reply to Harry’s letter without even opening it.

_ You’ll never guess who I’m bringing on a date next weekend,  _ she writes, and then she opens the letter.


End file.
